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NiGHTS series
NiGHTS is a video games franchise developed by SEGA starring the titular character, NiGHTS, a genderless nightmaren who was created to do evil but decided to go against it, now he must fight the world of the nightmarens and protect the world of dreams aswell as the human's dreams, the series started in 1996 with the release of NiGHTS into dreams for the SEGA Saturn, Even though the series only has two games and a bonus edition, NiGHTS has managed to become one of SEGA's most popular series, the serie was created by Yuji Naka, who was also the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog series, in fact, one of NiGHTS most notable aspects, is the fact it has been referred in a lot Sonic games, such as Sonic Adventure, Sonic Riders and Sonic Lost World. NiGHTS had a cancelled Dreamcast game called Air NiGHTS, a small comic series released in 1998 and a storybook released only in Japan in 1996. Overview History In the world of dreams known as the Night Dimension, there are two types of locations: the world of good dreams, known as Nightopia and the world of bad dreams/nightmarens, know as Nightmare, Wizeman the Wicked is the God of nightmare and creator of all the nightmarens, he created them with the intention to destroy Nightopia and to steal ideyas from humans while they are sleeping (which are called "Visitors" or "Dreamers" in the games), ideyas are colored, crystalline orbs which are human's dream energy and every Visitor possesses five of them, in the NiGHTS' manual, it's stated that once Wizeman steal enough dream energy from humans, he will be able to invade the real world, out of the five ideyas, the red ideya of courage is the most powerful and for some reason, the nightmarens cannot steal it, Wizeman created two nightmarens who are his most powerful creations, NiGHTS and Reala with the intention to steal the red ideyas, but for Wizeman's surprise, while Reala was a very loyal servant, NiGHTS decided to rebel agaist him, since then, NiGHTS has been fighting Wizeman and his minions to protect the world of dreams and humans, in games, NiGHTS is assisted by two human children who are having a hard time in their lifes, during their adventures, NiGHTS helps the kids by encouraging them to face their problems, to defeat the nightmarens, NiGHTS has the power fuse with humans so he can use their red ideya to become more powerful, in the games, this type of fusion is called "dualize". Ideyas Ideyas are colored, crystalline orbs representing dream energy. The Nightmarens steal this energy from Visitors to further their goal of destroying Nightopia and to invading the real world. Each time an Ideya is stolen, Nightopia disappears bit by bit. Ideya represents the Visitor's consciousness in the Night Dimension. Every dreamer possesses five of them, although they are often stolen by Nightmarens on the way to the Night Dimension. The name is a play on the word idea. The ideas are the white ideya of purity, the yellow ideya of hope, the green ideya of growth, the blue ideya of inteligence and the most powerful one, the red ideya of courage. The ideya of the courage cannot be stolen by the nightmarens due to it's power, because of this, NiGHTS and Reala were created with the intention to steal it, in the Archie Comics, it's revealed that NiGHTS' ruby on his chest is actually a shard of the red ideya which latched on to his chest. Nightmare level system The nightmare kingdom follows a system where they are ranked as first, second or third level nightmarens, first level nightmarens are the highest ranking nightmarens and there are only two, NiGHTS and Reala, they were created specifically to steal the red ideya, the second level nightmarens are all of the game's bosses with the exception of Reala and Wizeman, they are powerful monsters who are stronger than most of the nightmarens in the Nightmare kingdom, but they are not stronger than NiGHTS and Reala, they are also more resistent and they have the power to create their own battefield to fight NiGHTS and third level nightmarens are the enemies who can be found in the levels, they are Wizeman's weakest creations who can be easily defeated by NiGHTS and even by visitors alone. Visitors .]] So far, the NiGHTS series presented four visitors, Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair in NiGHTS into dreams and William (Will) Taylor and Helen Cartwright in NiGHTS Journey of dreams, the visitors (somethings called "dreamers") are humans who are having a hard time in their lifes, Claris is feeling insecure about the dreams she wants to follow, Elliot is being bullied by older kids, Helen is feeling guilty about her behavior towards her mother and William is feeling lonely after his father leaving him due his work, one night during their sleep, they are having nightmarens about their problems when suddently, monsters appear and start to chase them, they run from the monsters until they see a light which sends them to the Night dimension, where they meet NiGHTS and their journey begins, before every level, NiGHTS gets captured by Wizeman and/or Reala and he is imprisioned in a cage, however the Visitor's ideya is capable of releasing him from the cage for a limited time so NiGHTS can save a Nightopia location one by one, in the Archie comics, Elliot's bully and rival, Roger Wilkeah, is also a visitor, Roger is sent to the nightmare world and he joins forces with Reala to defeat NiGHTS. Gender in the World of Dreams "Men or women, we all have dreams, so I thought that the residents in the dream world shouldn’t have a gender, rather, the form of the characters should be determined by the person who is dreaming." ―Yuji Naka about the characters gender. The characters gender (specially NiGHTS' gender) is a very infamous detail which has caused a lot of debates among the community, many people question if NiGHTS is actually a boy or a girl while others try to prove NiGHTS actually belongs to a specific gender, however, Yuji Naka himself already confirmed in an interview that every resident from the world of dreams is genderless, including NiGHTS, Reala, Nightopians, Owl and others, http://www.nightsintodreams.com/?p=1343 even characters like Puffy, Bomamba and Queen Bella, who have a very feminine design and go by female pronouns, are actually genderless, Wizeman, who is confirmed to be male, is the only exception, he is the only resident from the world of dreams to have a gender likely because it's rumored he was actually a human before getting trapped in the world of dreams and becoming the God of all the nightmarens. Sonic Team wanted NiGHTS to appeal to a wide audience and be relatable to everybody regardless of gender, therefore it was made clear that the character has no gender of their own, so it's up to the player to decide however they want to see NiGHTS. http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2007/12/interview_takashi_iizuka_talks_nights there's also a popular belief among the community where they believe NiGHTS' gender will change depending on the visitor he dualizes with, if NiGHTS dualizes with a male visitor, NiGHTS will become a boy, if NiGHTS dualizes with a female visitor, NiGHTS will become a girl and when he is not fused, he will become genderless. Although NiGHTS is genderless, he is referred as a "he" in all types of media. Gameplay styles In NiGHTS into dreams, before the levels, Wizeman imprisons NiGHTS in a small blue cage called "Ideya Palace", the player first controls either Elliot or Claris who are attacked by nightmarens that steal all of their ideyas but the red one and places them inside a blue Jellyfish-like capsule called "Ideya Capsule", the kids must dualize with NiGHTS and recover the four stolen ideyas in a limited time, each level has four laps, each lap has an ideya to recover, NiGHTS must collect 20 blue chips around the lap under 120 seconds and then go inside the Ideya Capsule, once NiGHTS gets the ideya back, the player can decide to either go to the next lap and collect the next ideya or spend the rest of the remaining time to get a high score, once all four ideyas are recovered, Wizeman will send a boss to fight NiGHTS, if the player defeat the boss quickly, they will be able to double their score. In NiGHTS Journey of dreams, the game's goal is different, once again, before every level, Reala will imprision NiGHTS in a capsule called "NiGHTS capsule" and he will leave NiGHTS there with three Goodles, each Goodle will keep a capsule key and once the player release NiGHTS, they will need to chase the Goodle and bring the key to the capsule back so it can be destroyed, in a limited time. Common features NiGHTS is a game known for it's Arcade game like gameplay, the player control NiGHTS freely though the sky and with the goal to make high score, NiGHTS can passes though rings, collect blue chips and destroy third level nightmarens if the player collects a lot of blue chips and/or pass though a lot of rings fast enough, they will make their score higher, at the end of the levels, NiGHTS must face a second level nightmaren, if he defeats them fast enough, the player might double their scores. Characters * NiGHTS: the main protagonist from the games, he is a nightmaren who rebelled against his own creator because he didn't want to do evil, one of NiGHTS most famous traits is the fact that he is a genderless being (although he is refered as a "he" in every game), NiGHTS protects the world of dreams from the nightmarens with the help of kids who possese the powerful dream energy known as the ideya of courage. * Reala: the serie's secondary antagonist, unlike NiGHTS, Reala is completely loyal to his creator and he does everything Wizeman wants. * Wizeman: the series main antagonist, he is the god creator of all the nightmarens including NiGHTS and Reala, his goal is to destroy the world of dreams and to steal enough human dream energy to take over the world, while Wizeman's past is never mentioned in the games, it's been said that he was a human without ideyas. * Visitors: In every NiGHTS game, NiGHTS has the help of two visitors, a girl and a boy, who are struggling in their lifes, the visitors dualize (fuse) with NiGHTS to become a single being, this way NiGHTS can use their dream energy to become more powerful. Spin-offs NiGHTS: Flying Through the Sky Without Wings A mini NiGHTS storybook called NiGHTS: Flying Through the Sky Without Wings was released exclusivly in Japan in 1996, the story tells a small adventure with NiGHTS and Elliot trying to stop the nightmarens from taking over the dream world. NiGHTS Archie Comics In 1998 Archie Comics released a total of six NiGHTS comics, while the first three did pretty well, the last three didn't, causing the Archies to be discontinued. Cameos and References in games and other medias List of NiGHTS' appearances, cameos and references Even with only two games, the NiGHTS series is notable for being referred in a lot of SEGA games, specially in Sonic games, NiGHTS was also refered in other types of media, such as in the Nickelodeon's Animated TV series, Danny Phantom. Reception Since its release, NiGHTS into Dreams has appeared on several best-game-of-all-time lists. In a January 2000 poll by Computer and Video Games, readers placed the game 15th on their "100 Greatest Games" list, directly behind Super Mario 64. IGN ranked the game as the 94th best game of all time in their "Top 100 Games" list in 2007, and in 2008, Levi Buchanan ranked it fourth in his list of the top 10 Sega Saturn games. Next Generation ranked the game 25th in its list of the "100 Greatest Games of All Time" in their September 1996 issue (i.e. one month before they actually reviewed the game, and roughly two months before it saw release outside Japan). 1UP ranked the game third in its "Top Ten Cult Classics" list. In 2014, GamesRadar listed Nights into Dreams as the best Sega Saturn game of all time, stating that the game "tapped into a new kind of platform gameplay for its era". Cult Following NiGHTS' is one of the SEGA franchises with the largests cult following and even SEGA, Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka acknowledge that, Lynne Triplett, a famous artist and NiGHTS fan among the NiGHTS community was responsable for creating NiGHTSintodreams.com, a NiGHTS fan site dedicated NiGHTS' news, facts and more. In 2010, the NiGHTS community started a campaign to make NiGHTS a playable in Sonic and SEGA all star racing once it was revealed he wouldn't be playable, although the campaign reached SUMO Digital studios, NiGHTS unfortunatly didn't make in the game as a playable character, however due to the campain, both NiGHTS and Reala became playable in the sequel, Sonic and All Star Racing Transformed in 2012. In 2011, to celebrate the game's 15th anniversary, OverClocked ReMix (OC Remix), a community which makes video game music with composers from all over the world, made a fan album for NiGHTS into dreams, called NiGHTS Lucid Dreaming and Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka themselves were gifted with a copy of the discs. Trivia References External links ;Official ;Commercial ;Fan made Category:Games Category:Nights into Dreams Wiki Category:Community